Computer programs are often represented by windows on a display device. Each of these windows typically represents a program operating on the computer which may be selected by a user through the window. These computer windows often overlap one another, and a user may have several windows open at any given time. When many windows are open and overlapping on the display, it may be difficult for a user to find a particular window. This is especially true when some windows are completely hidden behind other windows.
Some systems exist for presenting alternate views of the windows. These include tiling and listing operations. For example, in a listing operation, a system may provide a list of the application programs and corresponding windows open on the display device. Therefore, a user may at least have a list of all windows which are currently open. In a tiling operation, the computer may manipulate all windows so that they are not overlapping and thus, for example, appear as "tiles" adjacent to one another.
A user, however, sometimes cannot manipulate the windows within these alternate views. This means that a user must find a window in the alternate view and then switch back to the normal view in order to manipulate the corresponding window. Also, in presenting these "tiles," the computer usually imposes a different order on the windows, which means that the windows typically do not appear at the same positions on the display device in comparison to the normal view. Therefore, the listing and tiling operations do not necessarily provide an indication of where the corresponding window is located on a display device and thus do not assist a user in locating a position of a particular window.